Gah.. I loved Paajarvi. Sad to see him go. He wasn’t really a good fit here the past couple years, or at least the Oilers didn’t seem a good fit for his skill set. He did what he had to do to become the player we needed… but I don’t think it was the right situation. SO I think we’re better off with Perron, but I can’t help but worry about this one. Paajarvi could become a very good player in St. Louis (I hope so), and Perron has his concussion issues.

I’m impressed that MacT negotiated the ntc/nmc for year two only (year one not an option, but year three certainly was). When he is approaching ufa time, it will allow the Oilers the option to move him if needed. Very smart.

Racki:
I’m impressed that MacT negotiated the ntc/nmc for year two only (year one not an option, but year three certainly was). When he is approaching ufa time, it will allow the Oilers the option to move him if needed. Very smart.

Me too. Mac T was between a rock and a hard place in these negotiations and he probably came out of it with the best outcome one could hope for.

Price seemed a little high but not bad, Gagner seems happy to remain an Oiler & is ready to get the season going. Hopefully he will show some good chemistry with Perron & Yak making his contract look like a deal !

I think Gagner will have a much better year playing with Perron and Yak. I still dislike that our top 2 centers can’t win a draw if they doubled up vs. the other team’s center. But it is what it is. The number is too high for me too, but it’s not outrageously high. Just a bit too high. It’ll work.

Next up, move Hemmer.. sorry Steve-O/HL and whomever else has a poster of him above their beds. The Oilers could now use some cap space.

I don’t if this scenario happens much in the NHL but how about the option of using Hall in key 1st line faceoffs then having him flanking off to the wing, switching with Nuge once the draw has been taken? From what I’ve seen Hall is pretty strong on the dot but playing the wing defiantly suits his game more(as does Nuge with Center/post faceoff).

Racki: Hem’s been trade bait for so long, I will not be shocked if he goes. I really want to be in the playoffs next year, so… Whatever it takes. As long as we don’t overpay. I’ll take one for the team.

Not sure if the Oilers will get a great return for Hemmer at this point, especially with his high cap hit. Personally I’d be thrilled if we could recoup the 2nd round pick we lost in the Perron aquisition.

john:
Not sure if the Oilers will get a great return for Hemmer at this point, especially with his high cap hit. Personally I’d be thrilled if we could recoup the 2nd round pick we lost in the Perron aquisition.

IMO it is more important to add a physical bottom 6 guy and I’ve heard that early indications point to the 2014 draft as being an extremely weak one.

Metal&amp;Oil: IMO it is more important to add a physical bottom 6 guy and I’ve heard that early indications point to the 2014 draft as being an extremely weak one.

If we can somehow pull Kyle Clifford out of L.A. for picks/prospects (since they have next to no cash avail there now) and trade Hemmer for a RW energy guy, this team will be miles ahead of where it was before.

Hell, we probably don’t even really need to trade Hemmer for that. We still have Ben Eager in our back pocket. Yah, he had a real disappointing year last year, and such, but this is a new year, a new coach, a new team. He will likely really never fight again though, so I don’t believe that will be a part of his game anymore. It will be a rare event, at any rate. I actually have my doubts he’ll play here ever again (meaning I don’t think he’ll be of any use to get a job here), but figure I’ll bring his name up anyways).

Clifford Gordon Eager might make for a hard hitting, responsible line. Of course there are still others fighting for roster spots, like Joensuu. He could be a bit of a wildcard too and could fit in on the right wing on that line.

David Staples beating the drum about signing him to 8 years (J. Schultz) at around $5M per. I’m not sure how many people would agree with that. Me, not so much. I get the reasoning, but there are too many risks… will be be worth that much over time? Will he stay healthy? Will he regress? Will he flip on autopilot with financial security? Also, does it not send a message to other young players? Bust your ass in year one, and you should negotiate for the big deal.. then you can take it easy for a while. I’m pretty sure it’s happened with some players. Most have too much self respect, but I think some think more about their health than about compete level once they have that pay day.

I don’t like really long term contracts because a lot of teams have been burned sooooo bad by those.

We all saw Cogliano and Gagner as permanent top line fixtures in their first couple of years. Gagner still is important here, but Cogliano is not all that special, really.

I agree, Racki, we ought to wait it out a bit. Bridge contract for Schultzy. Worst case, we pay him what he’s worth. If we overpay now and he doesn’t progress, we’ve got ourselves cap problems even before we’ve begun thinking about Nuge, Yakattack. That’s ridiculous.

Many of the recent signings make me, like a million other hockey fans, wonder why they bothered having the lockout at all. 6M for Pavelski? As much as Hall? Fuck, 500k more than Tavares? Feeble.
Clarkson, that star, is making just a sliver of dollars less than Tavares, than St. Louis, than Kessel. Stooped. Stoo-ped.

Owners are buying out players left and right, turn around and sign new deals just waiting for failure. What the actual fuck. Gagner’s deal looks better in that respect. But still a bit too much for what I expect of him. Hall’s deal is looking bloody nice in comparison to some of these deals.

As for Jultz, my biggest issue that I’ll re-emphasize… long term deals seldom seem to work. Especially that long. There is a reasonably good chance it would be a bargain by the end of it, but you just don’t know, so yah.. no thank you.

I hear you NO, ridiculous contract prices on equally ridiculous term lengths. Scary thing is MacT “reportedly” offered Clarkson even more money on similar length of contract than Leafs did! Another case of the one that got away being a good thing. JSchultz at $14mil over 3 years would be perfect in my books. If he ends up being the next Doughty/Seabrook/whatever in next couple years then you give him the muhlah or trade for something good.

While I do think 8 years for J. Schultz would be a little long, I honestly do believe locking him into a 6 year deal if you can get it at around $4.5m before this season is finished would be a great deal.

Looking at the current cap 4.5 is quite a large cap hit.

However with the Canadian TV rights up there will be a huge amount of money added to HRR. edit: The current CBC contract is worth $100m to the NHL, it’s expected the NHL will get double that for it’s Saturday night package, and there is to be a new Sunday night package which Bell are expected to bid for at a similar price, so there is roughly another $400m going into the HRR pot. edit: forgot about the wednesday night package, you could easily be looking at upwards of $500m per year into HRR just from the new TV contracts from Canada alone.

There are 4 outdoor games this year, including the detroit/toronto game which will generate huge amounts of revenue.

The NHL has seen revenues grow year on year with the cap rising quickly, the new split of HRR will see it rise slightly slower, but I’d still expect the cap to be over $75m in 4 years time.

The non cap factor is how many times Edmonton have offered huge sums to UFAs and been turned down, and with the cap always rising I’d rather overpay on term and be able to trade a player than overpay on dollars and have them be untradeable and lose them for nothing.

And even if Schultz doesn’t progress having a 50ish point Dman who isn’t a liability in his own end signed long term isn’t a bad thing.

His scoring pace from last season would have put him top 10 in scoring for Dmen in the NHL the season prior, with him being extremely close to top 5.

Regarding Schultz, J. I dont doubt he has the talent to be elite, but i hate that he only had a 2 year entry deal. I am sure the Oilers will throw a lng extension to him, as it was probably part and parcel with him signing here in the first place.
J Schultz is a strange situation due to the fact he chose to come here as a rookie UFA who had his choice of 30 teams. In most cases I would prefer a bigger body of work before dishing out an extension of over 4 years, and just accept paying full market value at the end of a bridge contract. With Justin its more dicey because i do feel as much as we gave him opportunity he wouldnt have had else where he also really helped us out by signing here and commiting.

In my opinion its based on the dollar value the agent wants. If there is no discounting for the security of term than i say buy one or two UFA years but no more. I dont get why teams continually allow thermselves to be played when really these are guaranteed contracts and the security is extremely valuable. If i am a GM i am holding every extended year as risk and value that the team is giving the player. If you want the security than the discounting will increase yearly.
I have no problems with the Oilers paying full value once contracts are up and signing guys for 2/3 year deals. but those long contracts carry a risk that is disproportionately carried.

I am a huge fan of 3/4 year contracts. I think its the perfect term for both parties. You cant tell me players cant have security out of a guaranteed 4 year NHL one way contract.

I see an extension during the season, same with RNH

Now, Is there any effect on current years cap if extensions are signed during the season?

Just wanted to also add that Larssen apparently had an impressive WC. If he can be a quality puck mover and make good enough reads… it could really help our right side. Im not holding my breath but he seems to be that player who can elevate his game in the right situation. Last year he looked terrible but he had a good rookie year. Part of the coaches job is to know how Larssen will best work and use him correctly. I hope this ends up being a huge bonus pick-up from a trade no one thought we would have a strong asset arriving in return.
It doesnt hurt that he trains during summers with Karlsson

in my opinion, when i watched dallas last year i didnt think their bottom forwards were nearly good enough to help the bottom d get anything productive going in any of the 3 zones.
ah shit… i just about our bottom forwards. Faaaak

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